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The Year in Cars: 2015's Greatest Automotive Achievements

Robot taxis, electric supercars, car sharing services that don’t suck. The stuff of dreams, science fiction, far off fantasies. Or, they were until this year, when suddenly they weren’t. Doc Brown had the right year all along: welcome to the future, friends.

In 2015, Porsche showed us an electric sedan that could recharge in 15 minutes. Mercedes and BMW proposed car sharing services using autonomous vehicles that deliver themselves to you. Apple and Google are both spending massive money on top-secret automotive projects. And Tesla finally put its electric Crossover/Gullwing SUV into production, not to mention a semi-autonomous Model S. The cars aren’t flying, but they’re driving themselves. They’re already here. Kind of.

Sometimes you don’t see change coming until it’s sitting in your driveway.

Of course, there was a fair crop of new supercars and luxury SUVs, too. But, more than anything else, this will go down as the year big automakers got serious about the future, the year we realized everything was about to get weird.

Here’s what you need to know about the year that was, and the year to come.

McLaren 570S

A Supercar For The People (at least the ones with $200K to blow)

Imagine a rocket-powered go-kart, and you’re 90 per cent of the way to understanding McLaren’s latest sports car. The last 10 per cent requires an appreciation of perfect handling, sublime balance, deft steering and explosives.

McLaren’s new “entry level” machine has a carbon-fibre chassis and a twin-turbo V8 engine — just like the million-dollar P1. There’s nothing really entry-level about it, except the price, which undercuts everything from the Italian supercar houses.

The 570S blasts its way between corners with a whoosh of turbo boost and a new-school V8 buzz. But it’s what it does with corners that makes this car special. And you don’t even have to be breaking the speed limit to appreciate it. The 570S is a goddamn ballerina. Oversteer, understeer, late braking, pirouette: it’s got all the moves. And it’s ready to dance whenever you want.

Bentley Bentayha Mulliner Tourbillon x Breitling

Best Clock

The point of a tourbillon is to fight gravity, countering the Earth’s unbalancing effect on delicate time-keeping mechanisms. It’s a wildly ambitious thing, a masterpiece of engineering and craftsmanship. Not unlike the Bentley on which dashboard it proudly sits. The tourbillon is available in either white or yellow gold, but Bentley will happily take requests if you’d prefer some other exotic material.

BMW 7 Series

Best iPad Alternative

Buy an exclusive BMW Touch Command tablet, and get a free 7 Series limousine as a carrying case! The seven-inch tablet sits snug in the rear-seat armrest, and can be used to control everything from the stereo, to seat warmers, to window blinds, to Netflix. The car is pretty good, too.

Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo

Aston Martin DB9 GT

Best Aging Gracefully

Can it really have been so long ago? The first time we laid eyes on the DB9 was back in 2003, at some far-flung auto show. It looked beautiful then, and now, 12 years later, it’s more beautiful than ever: low and lean, it defines the ideal sports car silhouette.

Mercedes-AMG G65

A Carbon Footprint Kick to Mother Earth’s Nuts

That the G-Class still exists is a minor miracle. This military-spec SUV looks nearly identical to its ’70s ancestor, updated only to pass modern crash tests and be even more intimidating. Besides, a twin-turbo V12-powered SUV is the opposite of politically correct. It might as well be the official sponsor of the excess.

Audi Q7

The Leanest Machine

It’s hard to lose weight, but the Q7 did it through hard work, determination, and extensive use of aluminum. Result? The all-new Q lost 325 kg compared to the previous one. That means it’s more fuel efficient, and easier to wheel around a parking lot. But, luckily it hasn’t lost the features that made it one of our favourite family haulers: seven seats and enough screen to keep an entire kindergarten class busy.

BMW i8

Lincoln Continental Concept

The Best Comeback

It’s been a long time since we mentioned a Lincoln in these pages, but the brand that brought us the Town Car and the original Batmobile is staging a comeback. If the concept car shown here is any indication of what we can expect, well, Lincoln will return to its former glory. All it’s missing are some tail fins.